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An American Airlines flight made an emergency landing on Saturday when a passenger’s device caught fire after takeoff, marking the latest in a string of alarming incidents involving lithium battery-powered devices on airplanes.

The average air traveler brings four personal electronic devices on a flight, without being aware they are powered by lithium-ion batteries or understanding the potential risk they pose.

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Earlier this month, smoke filled the cabin of a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines plane after a portable phone charger caught fire midflight between São Paulo, Brazil and Amsterdam. In July, a personal device with a lithium-ion battery caused a fire on a Delta flight, leading to an emergency landing in Fort Myers. The same month, a suspected lithium-battery fire broke out in the overhead bin of a Virgin Australia flight and filled the cabin with smoke. (Since the incident, the carrier is conducting a review of the carriage of power banks onboard. “If you are intending to travel with a power bank, please keep it in sight and within easy reach during the flight,” the Virgin Australia website says.) In April, a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu to Tokyo declared an emergency when a passenger’s cell phone became lodged in a seat and began emitting an “electrical smell.”

The primary risk is that these batteries can overheat and go into thermal runaway, a chain reaction in which a lithium-ion cell enters an uncontrollable, self-heating state—resulting in extremely high temperatures, smoke and, ultimately, a fire that is especially difficult to put out and can reignite even after being seemingly extinguished. The FAA website says “flight crews are trained to recognize and respond to lithium battery fires in the cabin.” One major challenge is the sheer volume of lithium batteries traveling on any given flight. The average U.S. traveler brings four devices on a plane—most commonly smartphones (81%), laptops (40%), wireless headphones (38%), and tablets (35%), according to a 2024 survey of over 12,000 adults by ULSE. According to FAA data, 39% of lithium-battery incidents on aircraft reported since 2006 involved portable chargers. The next biggest culprit was vape pens, responsible for 21% of incidents.

Somewhat confusingly, the FAA’s PackSafe webpage says passengers “should” pack lithium battery-powered personal electronic devices in carry-on bags, while also explaining that these devices are allowed in checked luggage as long as they are “completely powered off and protected to prevent unintentional activation or damage,” adding that “most consumer personal electronic devices containing batteries are allowed in carry-on and checked baggage.” Meanwhile, spare lithium-ion batteries, including power banks and charging cases, “must be carried in carry-on baggage only.” The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and major airlines routinely remind passengers to pack portable chargers and other personal devices in carry-on bags—the latter typically through pop-up messages during the check-in process—but there remains a general lack of awareness among flyers about what powers these electronics. “The reality is we rely on people to know what a lithium battery is, to know if their device has it, and to self-declare,” Dave Hunt, vice president of safety and security at Southwest Airlines, told Forbes. Notably, passengers have “extremely limited awareness of the power source of the devices they bring on planes or the risk they can pose,” according to research from UL Standards & Engagement (ULSE), a nonprofit organization that develops and advocates for safety standards in various sectors, including the airline industry. More than one-third (38%) of passengers pack rechargeable devices in checked luggage, where they can’t be accessed during flight, according to ULSE’s 2024 survey. While the TSA screens checked bags for lithium batteries, some inevitably get past the safeguards, based on multiple anonymous reports from the ASRS database. For example, in April, an airline baggage handler reported a passenger bag smelling of smoke after coming down the sorter chute during the loading process, then igniting “with thick smoke about 30 feet.” Fortunately, the incident happened before the bag was loaded on the first of three connecting flights. “Passengers need to make sure there are NO Lithium Batteries in checked bags,” wrote the ground crew member. In May, another baggage handler reported that a case had opened and “camera supplies spilled over the ramp,” including lithium-ion batteries, camera spare batteries and a large power bank, moments before it was to be loaded in the plane’s cargo hold. Multiple safety reports in the ASRS database between January and May describe devices such as electric scooters and hoverboards being discovered in checked bags, sometimes after the flight had landed.

A review of confidential safety reports made to the ASRS in the first five months of this year reveals an understanding among aviation professionals— from pilots and flight attendants to ground crew—of the risk posed by lithium batteries. The largest union of flight attendants “is absolutely concerned and has been working for many years with the industry and regulators to attack this problem,” Taylor Garland, spokesperson for the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents nearly 55,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines, said in an email to Forbes. “There's too little public awareness of the threat,” she said, adding that fireproofing systems in the baggage hold “are not designed to stop a lithium battery fire, so it's really better if all battery devices are in the cabin within arm's reach of their owner.” Hunt pointed out that, statistically, 1.4 lithium battery incidents per week in the U.S. is a miniscule percentage, given that more than 2 million passengers fly every day with multiple electronic devices. “This is an extremely rare event,” he told Forbes. “The problem is that it’s highly consequential. And we know what the worst case scenario is—an uncontrolled fire.”

644. That’s how many lithium-battery incidents the FAA has verified since 2006.

In the U.S., in May, Southwest Airlines became the first U.S. airline to ban passengers from charging devices with a power bank inside a carry-on bag due to the risk of a charger’s lithium battery overheating or catching fire. “This is what proactive safety looks like,” Hunt said. “We're not waiting for a regulator or an outside entity to tell us what to do. We felt there was enough evidence for us to make what are fairly modest changes.” Globally, most of the airlines that have issued new policies this year regarding portable chargers are based in Asia. Earlier this month, Emirates, the flagship carrier for the United Arab Emirates, announced it is banning using any kind of power bank onboard flights. Elsewhere in Asia, Japanese carriers, including All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines no longer allow portable batteries to be stored in overhead bins. Using power banks during flights is prohibited by Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Taiwan’s EVA Air and China Airlines, and Hong Kong’s aviation regulator imposed similar restrictions on Cathay Pacific and other airlines in the territory. In February, following a fire that destroyed a passenger jet, South Korean budget carrier Air Busan prohibited carry-on luggage containing portable chargers from being stored in overhead bins.

Southwest Airlines Bans Charging Devices Inside Carry-On Bags—Here’s Why (Forbes)